Layered Money: From Gold and Dollars to Bitcoin and Central Bank Digital Currencies

Nik Bhatia’s Layered Money offers a masterful synthesis of monetary history and digital finance. It examines how financial systems evolved into layered networks of credit, trust, and value, and how blockchain introduces a new paradigm within that structure. For more advanced readers, the book gives both macroeconomic and technical insight - showing how decentralized assets like Bitcoin coexist with central bank digital initiatives. Bhatia, a financial researcher and former Wall Street trader, translates complex financial mechanisms into clear, logical narratives that connect traditional and digital economies. His discussion of monetary hierarchy, liquidity, and transparency gives blockchain professionals a broader understanding of the global financial ecosystem they are helping to transform. Deeply informative yet accessible, Layered Money is a critical read for developers, economists, and policymakers navigating the digital currency era.

Nik Bhatia is a financial researcher, educator, and author who lectures on finance and economics at the University of Southern California. His work explores the intersection of monetary theory, blockchain technology, and modern financial markets.